14 July

International news

Kong Jie repeats in TV Asia

Kong Jie 9-dan of China scored his first international success by winning the 21st TV Asia Cup last year. He followed that up with two more international wins (the 14th Samsung cup and the 14th LG Cup), which established him as the top international player. He has now capped a successful year by winning the TV Asia Cup again.
The 22nd cup was held in Kyoto in Japan from 1 to 3 June. Kong, who was seeded into the semifinal stage, beat Yi Ch'ang-ho of Korea to make the final. The other star of the tournament was a representative of the host country, Yuki Satoshi 9-dan, who defeated Chen Yaoye 9-dan of China and Kang Tong-yun 9-dan of Korea to set up a play-off with Kong.
Yuki took the early lead in the final, but Kong played aggressively in settling a group inside Yuki's moyo and upset his lead.

Yi Ch'ang-ho gets married

At a press conference held at the Korean Ki-in on 15 June, Yi Ch'ang-ho 9-dan announced his engagement to Yi Doyun. The press conference lasted 50 minutes, but Yi Ch'ang-ho, who usually shows almost no emotion even when he wins a world championship, and his fiancée were wreathed in smiles from beginning to end and were photographed hugging each other. A simple wedding, attended only by family and close relatives, was held on 28 June.

Kong Jie wins Fujitsu Cup

In the final of the 23rd Fujitsu Cup, Kong Jie 9-dan of China beat Yi Se-tol 9-dan of Korea by a big margin. The game was held at the Nihon Ki-in on 5 July; taking white, Kong completely outplayed Yi Se-tol 9-dan of Korea and won by 12.5 points.
In the play-off for third place, Qiu Jun 8-dan (B) of China beat Piao Wenyao 5-dan, also of China, by resignation.
This is Kong's fifth international title and his fourth concurrent one, so he has strengthened his claim to the number one spot internationally. In little more than a year, Kong has reached 7th place in the list of international title winners.
This year three of the top four were from China, which confirms the power shift that is taking place in world go. Over the last two years or so, China has been doing increasingly well in international tournaments.

15th LG Cup

Five Chinese and three Korean players have won their way to the quarterfinals of the 15th LG Cup. The most noteworthy result came in the first round, where Gu Li of China defeated Yi Se-tol of Korea. Although he lost in the second round, this may be a sign that Gu is coming out of his slump.
The quarterfinalists are Kong Jie, Piao Wenyao, Hu Yaoyu, Wang Yao, and Meng Tailing, all of China, and Yi Ch'ang-ho, Ch'oe Ch'eol-han, and An Cho-yeong of Korea. The tournament resumes in November.

Zhou wins Taiwan-Japan tournament

The 3rd Taiwan-Japan New Stars tournament was held at the Haifeng Qiyuan (Kaiho Ki-in) in Taipei, Taiwan, on 19 and 20 June. In the final, Zhou Junxun 9-dan of Taiwan defeated Matsumoto Takehisa 7-dan of Japan. First prize is 750,000 Taiwanese dollars (about two million yen). The previous tournaments were won by So Yokoku 8-dan and Kono Rin 9-dan of the Nihon Ki-in.

Japanese news

Yamashita wins first Honinbo title

Yamashita Keigo was deposed as Kisei in February this year, but it hasn't taken him long to regain his place among the big-three titleholders.
As described in our previous report, Yamashita made a bad start to the 65th Honinbo title match, losing the opening game, but he roared back to take four games in a row. The defending champion, Hane Naoki, was unable to match his fighting power in the middle game.
The second game was played at the Fukahori Mansion, a traditional Japanese inn, in Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture, on 26 and 27 May. Hane played boldly, starting a fight with moves 26 and 28 that surprised the spectators. However, the result was a ko fight in which he gave up six stones in the centre to win the ko. Another furious fight broke out in a different part of the board, but Yamashita seemed to gain an advantage. Hane kept challenging him throughout the game but ended up one and a half points behind.
The third game was held at the Nara Hotel in Nara City on 8 and 9 June. The opening was unusually leisurely, by contemporary standards, but Yamashita (white) went on the attack in the middle game. Hane Naoki was put under a lot of pressure to look after his groups. Yamashita showed superior reading in the fighting and forced a resignation after 158 moves.
The fourth game was played at the Toda Residence, a Japanese inn, in Toba City, Mie Prefecture, on 17 and 18 June. Hane played aggressively, forcing Yamashita on the defensive. However, the latter matched Hane's good moves with good counterattacking moves, making a great fighting game. At the end, however, a hallucination by Hane saw a large group drop off, so he had to resign after 199 moves.
The fifth game, which was already a kadoban for Hane, was played at the Hotel Miyama in Chichibu City, Saitama Prefecture, on 28 and 29 June. Taking white, Yamashita outplayed Hane and scored a convincing win. This earned him his first Honinbo title and the 17th title of his career. He will be glad to have resumed his winning ways after successive setbacks in the Kisei and Judan titles.

35th Gosei title match: Sakai Hideyuki evens the score

Sakai Hideyuki 7-dan, the doctor-turned-professional at the Kansai Ki-in, is making his first challenge for a top-seven title, but he couldn't have picked a more formidable titleholder to match wits with. The defending Gosei, Cho U, has the additional motivation of securing his first honorary title, as a win will give him the Gosei title for the fifth year in a row. Similar motivation proved inadequate in Yamashita Keigo's case in the Kisei title, but Cho is at his peak.The only evidence in Sakai's favour is that he had an even record with Cho up to the title match, with each having beaten the other twice, but one can't read too much into just four games.
The title match got off to a start on 24 June, with the first game being played at the Saryo Soen teahouse in Akiu Hot Spring, Sendai City, Yamagata Prefecture. Playing white, Cho U made the weight of his greater experience tell and secured a resignation after 198 moves.
In the second game, played in the town of Nonoichi in Ishikawa Prefecture on 9 July, Sakai, playing white, edged Cho by 2.5 points to pick up his first title-match win. Cho had taken the lead in the opening, but Sakai caught up little by little and turned the game into an endgame contest. Unusually for him, Cho played slackly and let Sakai usurp the lead.
The third game is scheduled for 20 July.

Two-way tie in 35th Meijin League

Games in the Meijin League are now assuming greater importance as the end of the league approaches. After losing to Cho U in the fifth round, there was a lot of pressure on Takao Shinji in his sixth-round with Cho Chikun, but he came through it safely to keep his share of the lead.
In his sixth-round game, Cho U showed that he is in earnest about a return match with Iyama Yuta by beating O Meien. A week later, Yuki Satoshi showed equal determination to draw level with Cho and Takao. In the 7th round, the dead heat continued, with both Cho U and Takao winning their games. However, Yuki Satoshi lost his game, so he dropped back a point and is now out of the running. Even if both Cho and Takao lose (who plays Yuki) their final games, creating a three-way tie, only the two higher-ranked players qualify for a play-off.

35th Kisei Leagues begin

Both of the new Kisei Leagues got off to a start on 3 June and all the games in the first round have been completed. The number-one ranked players in both leagues won their games. On 8 July, the second round started; Iyama scored his second win, so it looks as if he will again be a major contender.

58th Oza tournament

The first of the semifinals in the 58th Oza tournament was held on 8 July. Mochizuki Ken’ichi 7-dan (B) beat Mitani Tetsuya 6-dan by resignation. Both these players have been doing well recently. Mochizuki, aged 27, took second place in the 32nd King of the New Stars title in 2007. Mitani is 24 and won the 3rd Hiroshima Aluminium Cup in 2008.
The other semifinal matches two Kansai players, Iyama Yuta Meijin and Yamada Kimio 9-dan. It’s interesting to note that the latter’s form in other tournaments remains good despite his woeful showing in the Meijin League.

Cho Riyu wins Gratitude Cup

The Gratitude (O-kage) Cup is a new tournament open to players under 31 years of age. The 1st Cup was held in Ise City on 14 and 15 May and was won by Cho Riyu 7-dan. His prize was three million yen.

Fujisawa Rina scores first official win

In our previous report, we mentioned the good start made by Fujisawa Rina 1-dan, the granddaughter (‘niece’ in our previous report was a slip) of Fujisawa Shuko. She also did well in her second official game, played on 10 June, defeating Kanda Ei 9-dan. The game was in Preliminary C of the 36th Kisei tournament; taking black, Rin won by resignation. Not so long ago, a 1-dan beating a 9-dan would have rated a write-up in the go press, but that feat has lost its rarity value (especially in Korea, where the new 1-dans are stronger than an average 9-dan). Still, it is a sign that Rina has real strength.
Her first official game was played on 24 May. Taking black, Rina lost by resignation to Horimoto Mitsunari 2-dan in Preliminary B of the 20th Ryusei tournament.

Clash between sisters

The first clash between sisters occurred when Mannami Kana and Nao ran into each other in the semifinal of the 4th Daiwa Securities Net Igo Ladies tournament. Nao 2-dan, the younger sister, took the lead in the opening, but Kana pulled rank in the middle game and staged an upset.
In the other semifinal, Okuda Aya 2-dan beat Suzuki Ayumi 5-dan. The final will be held on 17 July.

Asian Games representatives

Japan has announced its team for the 16th Asian Games, in which go will be an official competition sport for the first time. The games will be held from 12 to 27 November in Guangzhou, China, and there will be three go events – men’s and women’s team competitions and Pair Go.
Male players: Yamashita Keigo, Iyama Yuta, Takao Shinji, Yamada Kimio, Yuki Satoshi, Akiyama Jiro, Shuto Shun.
Female players: Umezawa Yukari, Yoshida Mika, Suzuki Ayumi, Mukai Chiaki, Osawa Narumi.

Most wins

Thanks to his four successive wins in the Honinbo title match, Yamashita Keigo took top position in the most-wins list, edging ahead of Cho U. Top places as of 9 July were:

Promotions (by cumulative-win system)

The Michael Redmond report: a big win

There is bad news and good news in this report. First of all, Michael was eliminated by Yoda Norimoto in the quarterfinals of the 36th Tengen tournament. This must have been a big disappointment, but then he went on to score what could be the biggest win of his career, defeating quadruple titleholder Cho U by half a point in the first round of the main section of the 17th Agon Kiriyama cup. Playing white, Michael had taken the lead in the middle game, but Cho made ferocious efforts to catch up in the endgame. Michael just managed to hold him off and win by half a point after 304 moves. Perhaps his endgame studies, referred to in a very interesting interview in the American Go Association’s e-journal, are paying off.

Ogawa Tomoko wins election

Recently Ogawa Tomoko 6-dan won an election to become the president of the Tokyo Professional Go Players Association at the Nihon Ki-in. Vice President is Nobuta Shigehito 6-dan. These two will represent the interests of professional go players at a time when there is a lot of pressure on the Nihon Ki-in to cut costs, as it lost a lot of money in the last financial year.

Ishida Yoshio wins 1,000 games

A win scored by Ishida Yoshio (Honinbo Shuho) over Sanno Hirotaka 9-dan in Preliminary C of the 59th Oza tournament was his 1,000th as a professional. Befitting a player who in his prime was known as ‘the computer’, Ishida (black) won the game by half a point. Ishida had 604 losses, so his winning percentage was 62%. He is the 11th player at the Nihon Ki-in to reach this landmark; it took him 47 years and one month.
Top of the list is Rin Kaiho, with 1352 wins.